RBC Taps Brian Varga to Run Gov Bond Desk

RBC Capital Markets, the investment banking arm of Royal Bank of Canada and a primary dealer of the U.S. Treasury market, has named Brian Varga to head the firm’s U.S. government bond trading desk.

The announcement is set to be released by the company Friday and a copy of the release was obtained exclusively by Dow Jones Newswires and the Wall Street Journal.

Varga, 43 years old, fills the void after Tom Tucci, a two-decade veteran of the bond industry, retired in July.

Varga started the position Thursday and is based in New York. He reports to Peter Hirsch, head of U.S. dollar rates and mortgage trading, according to the release.

Before RBC, Varga was an executive director in the interest rates group at Morgan Stanley. Prior to that, he headed the Treasury trading desk at Standard Chartered and held a similar position at Countrywide Financial.

RBC Capital Markets and Morgan Stanley are two of the 22 primary dealers which trade directly with the Federal Reserve and are obligated to bid on Treasury debt sales.

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